I have a 1995 Ford Mustang. It has 122,000 miles on it. In a best case situation, how long should I expect to keep it? It’s in good condition and I would like to get it to at least 200,000 before I give up on it.
Just keep driving it and maintain it as required. Depending on where you live, you may be driving it another 10 years. If you live in a dry area of the country, rust will not be a major problem.
Best case? Forever. But that will require large expenditures of money.
If you maintain the car properly there’s no reason to think you can’t get 200K miles out of it. Keep driving and follow the maintenance schedule in the owner’s manual.
Maintenance is the key to long vehicle life.
What they said, plus avoid the lure of ‘heapification’ - by that I mean the ‘oh, it’s an old car, I don’t need to fix that broken light/trim/seat/whatever’. As long as you spend the money (and it’ll be more than you spent so far) to keep it in great shape, it’ll reward you with reliable transportation.
I don’t like that it is a pre-OBD2 car, it is isn’t it?
I find that diagnosis is easier on OBD2 cars, what I am getting at is maybe a problem developes and it’s hard to find a garage that can diagnois the car.
Do you already have a mechanic that you are comfortable with or are you going to go to 200,000 miles alone?
Odd to think of a 1995 as a old car.
IMHO a Ford with 122k miles on it is just now getting loosened up. Change the oil and transmission fluid regularly, do not drive it with an overheating condition, and it can easily go 300-400k miles.
If you have the 3.8L V6 and the head gaskets haven’t blown yet, you’re on borrowed time. If you have the AOD-E transmission and the V8, the transmission isn’t going to hold up much longer. If you have the V8 and the stick shift, it will run almost indefinately.